EdTech innovation: What are we missing?

As Artificial Intelligence continues to seep into various aspects of human life, data protection has become a hot button topic for individuals, businesses, and governments around the world. One of the biggest questions to emerge in this debate is, ‘how can we ensure private sector players – tech giants that are leading on AI system development – are safeguarding us against the potential dangers of this technology?
With global research pointing to issues like algorithmic bias against certain minorities and ethnic groups, governments globally are engaging in dialogue with AI leaders to ensure that user safety and protection remain at the core of this AI-focused tech development. Of course, these concerns extend to the education landscape where education systems are increasingly turning to AI-powered platforms, for instance to gather student data and develop content. There is a pressing need to assess the role and effectiveness of government-led policies in protecting this data around essentially very vulnerable groups – young learners – from being exposed to third parties without consent.
While we know that data protection laws are in place globally, there is undoubtedly scope for improvement – particularly in the face of lingering threats like data leaks and cyberattacks. These examples of data breaches underscore larger concerns: ‘is it enough to rely on existing policies to preserve sensitive information? What more can be done to protect users?’ At a ground-level, tackling these issues will require governments to actively participate in and share input with developers during the decision-making of AI building.
Essentially, a robust public-private partnership model that involves collaboration between EdTech innovation sectors and governmental authorities will be key in achieving common goals and objectives. It is now essential for governments to play a larger part in the development of innovation ecosystems, not just in terms of monetary investment, but also within policy development so that new technologies not only meet the need of the end user, but are also built in a way that protects their data and interests. Innovation ecosystems will come to rely more and more on these types of lateral partnership models in order to grow. For instance, it is likely that we’ll see a greater number of non-tech private players becoming involved in pinpointing the types of skills EdTech providers should be focused on developing, if we are to see higher rates of economic growth globally.
The topic of bridging important skills gaps is inherent in any discussion related to innovation and access to quality education. For example, Africa, the world’s second-largest continent, has one of the largest youth populations in the world, and yet this region remains one of the most underserved when it comes to Internet connectivity. In Sub-Saharan Africa alone, an estimated 230mn jobs will require digital skills, but without the necessary training and learning experience to ensure even basic digital literacy, we will likely see a growing disparity between the capacity of local youth, and the needs of the global market, resulting in unprecedented levels of unemployment.
Therefore, if we are to really see the future of education as AI-driven, we must start first and foremost with the needs and interests of end users in mind. For example, in addition to increased government interest in this space, we have also begun to see innovation programmes being led by non-profit organisations like the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE), an initiative of Qatar Foundation through the WISE EdTech Testbed for example, that has worked to understand the needs of teachers and students locally in Qatar in order to positively influence global policies related to EdTech. Partnering with the local education ecosystem in this way has also served to drive innovation beyond technology. Indeed, the innovation and creativity of local practitioners and school leaders has been the starting point from which WISE has begun to help government partners understand how classrooms can be made future ready.
Often times when we see innovation being built, we assume that its concept begins and ends with the individual at its helm. However, when we see innovation and technology become a common good, a tool that can be leveraged for the benefit of the community, it is because there has been a collective effort to support its development. From the private sector to non-profit and government agencies, we must expect a multi-lateral approach to the development of a technology that will affect our day to day lives in the coming years.
Qatar Foundation’s World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) will host the 11th edition of its global education summit on November 28-29, bringing together global thought leaders, innovators, and government figures to review this topic among other concerns and opportunities around AI integration in education.
Register and attend WISE 11 via https://wisesummit2023.org/ to explore the diverse topics under AI in education.